


Maiko Week 2015

by firelordizumi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 23:42:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5025262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firelordizumi/pseuds/firelordizumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles and oneshots written for Maiko week. Content may vary, but nothing is explicit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. See You Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Facade" because I was getting all sentimental about weddings.

The bridal procession slowly makes its way through the city streets and arrives at the temple accompanied by the clamor of horns and drums. It’s been more than two decades since the last royal wedding, longer still since a wedding and a coronation took place on the same day. No expense has been spared, and the crowd watches eagerly as the palanquin comes to a stop and the attendants part the curtains.

The Fire Lord stands at the foot of the steps, waiting to escort the soon-to-be Fire Lady up to the dais where the high sage and the honored guests are already in place. The onlookers with the best view see their ruler’s eyes momentarily widen in awe as the bride emerges into the afternoon sunlight, but that is the only noticeable deviation from the solemnity of the occasion. As she makes her way toward him, her steps graceful and deliberate, her expression utterly composed, no one else assembled on the plaza knows the truth.

The night before, they stand facing each other with only a few witnesses in attendance, some from the families they were born into, but most of them from the family they chose. Their hair is mostly unstyled and unadorned, their attire elegant in its simplicity. Zuko holds a flame in his open palms and Mai a single candle. The tedium and stress of planning, all the protocol rehearsals and seating charts and fabric samples now pale in significance to the way her hair looks as it reflects the gleam of the candlelight, the way her breath catches in her chest in spite of herself when she sees Zuko looking at her like she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. 

Iroh asks the spirits for blessings on the couple’s behalf as they combine their flames into one, an unlit taper placed in front of the makeshift altar for that purpose. They have been separated before by distance and war, sacrifices and mistakes, but that becomes a distant memory when their eyes meet again and all their relief and joy is laid bare in an instant. They promise to give each other their support, constancy, and love for all the days that follow, and then it’s done. 

After congratulations are exchanged, they grudgingly part for the night, for tradition’s sake. “See you tomorrow,” he says with a smile, and she gives him a long kiss good night in return. There is only one more day of waiting left, and then they will never have to wait again.

This is what they think about when tomorrow comes, as she takes the hand he offers her and they begin the climb together.


	2. World Spins Madly On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the prompt "Ghosts" because there is a lack of comics-era pining. Spoilers for Smoke and Shadow if you haven't read it yet.

It always catches up to him when he’s alone. His life moves along at breakneck speed as he grapples with the pressure of his duties and it gets harder and harder to maintain the uneasy truce between the nations. Zuko retreats into himself again, throwing himself even deeper into his work. This is his responsibility, he tells himself, and only his; he must right the wrongs that his nation has inflicted upon the world. But on the rare occasions when it all stops, in the moments before he falls into fitful sleep, Mai is there. She’s in the fringes of his consciousness, the cool side of the bed, even sometimes in his dreams, always the way she left him, so formal that she sounds like a stranger.

With every day that passes, she slips further and further out of reach. He starts to forget the perfume of her hair and the sound of her voice as she hums to herself when she thinks no one’s listening. The prospect of a day when he’ll forget her face altogether terrifies him, especially since he knows it will come. The gradual, unrelenting pace of loss is achingly familiar. Zuko has lost people before, he and Mai have been torn apart before, but this time is different. This time, he let it happen. He replays her exit in his mind, agonizing over what he could have said, what he could have done differently to make her stay. It’s never enough.

Guilt emerges when the immediate concerns of his life dominate his thoughts again. It’s impractical, and he knows it; there are far more urgent matters at hand than a breakup. But he kept her at a distance, so he figures he deserves to feel the sting of the consequences. Sometimes he finds himself gazing across the courtyard and over the palace walls to see if a light still burns in her room in her parents’ house, his oasis during those conflicted weeks following his return from exile. It never does and he wonders where she’s gone, if she’s happy. He doesn’t try to find out. At the very least, he owes her that.

As he recovers in his uncle’s teashop after the Yu Dao crisis, gaunt and exhausted and lucky to be alive, he takes stock of the last year and the years before it, realizing the magnitude of everything that still haunts him. He can’t keep living like this; he has to move on. Mai is now a part of that, whether he likes it or not. Yet even when he finds his mother again, overcome with joy at the chance that he’s finally salvaged something of what’s left of his family, there’s a whisper of an empty space beside him that he can’t ignore. She should be there with him.

Months later, in the heat of battle, she suddenly is. For a moment, he wonders if the adrenaline has clouded his senses, but it’s Mai, all ferocity and urgency, yelling at him to duck, saving his life. Again. It’s one more thing he’ll have to make up to her. He wonders if he’ll ever get the chance.


End file.
